1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stepping motor control apparatus, a stepping motor control method, and a stepping motor control program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional stepping motor drive apparatus generally adopts a method in which reference is made to a table or the like which indicates a relation between a position of a rotator of a stepping motor and a phase, an exciting current corresponding to the position of the rotator is made to flow, and the rotator is rotated to a desired angle (see, JP-A-2002-281788 (Abstract, Claims)).
In the conventional drive apparatus, there is a problem that in the case where the relation between the position of the rotator and the phase deviates, an acceleration operation becomes unstable at the time of start of rotation, and there is a case where a discrepancy occurs between the phase of excitation and the position of the rotator, that is, the so-called loss of synchronism occurs.
In order to prevent the position of the rotator from deviating, a technique is proposed in which a hold current is made to flow at the time of stop of the stepping motor. However, in such a method, there is a problem that the motor generates heat by the hold current. Besides, since the hold current must be made to flow at all times, there is a problem that electric power consumption is increased.